Workin’ For The Weekend: Oklahoma City Barons Travel South To Cedar Park “Devolution Workin’ Man Blues”

Rock critics have a tendency to snobbishly downgrade the importance of bands against the backdrop of certain decades. In the 50’s some lambasted Chuck Berry for being an outrageous front man, while simultaneously ignoring the fact that he bridged the gap between bandleader and front man. In the 60’s, some trashed the birth of stadium anthem music for being selfish and self important while missing the cultural parallels those songs made in society. Then the 70’s came along. The naysayers hated the period’s slick productions, and intentional glam, but truthfully it gave a deeper theatrics to an already multi-layered art form. Then came the 80’s, which some claim is the dullest of the rock decades, and it’s various acts that mined the great caves of music only to emerge with a few gouges, and a few gold nuggets that stand the test of time.

I’ve clearly boiled down 40 years of rock music into one paragraph, and that’s not something I like doing. But hang tight, I have a point.

The Alarm, a band from the 80’s that’s not quite punk, not quite rock, not quite pop, but still all of these things, has always had a special place in my heart. From North Whales, the band was wildly successful in the mid to late 80’s when punk rock was diminishing and alternative rock was emerging. And what’s serendipitous about that is The Alarm perfectly fit into the “not this, but that” category. And to them, it was alright.

From 1983 the band would churn out 26 UK singles in the top 100, 11 US singles in the top 100, and forever etch themselves as one of the greats from across the pond during that time. But so often we hear their songs, and quickly ignore their significance. For they were bucking the trend of that time, and writing songs about life, struggle, and heartbreak. There’s more to this band than you thought.

One of my favorites has always been “Devolution Of The Workin’ Man Blues”. Somewhere between the Clash and U2, Mike Peters, Dave Sharp, Eddie McDonald, and Nigel Twist slay a song about state and union, religion and struggle, excess and poverty, hard work and chaos – it’s beautiful. And oh those crunchy guitar parts that seem to usher in the Seattle grunge scene so unintentionally. I love it. And you should too.

Workin’ hard, taking your licks, and weathering the storm are truly honorable sentiments both in real life and in portrayals of musical magic. Those same themes are also within the hockey we watch. The teams we cheer. And hopefully the attitudes of our favorite players.

Like The Alarm said its time for our team to be “kicking the dirt of our shoes”, because it’s time to go to work.

Boo to you Milwaukee Admirals. You gave us to of the most entertaining games I’ve seen in Oklahoma City in quite some time. Both games were fierce battles, with many breathe stealing moments. You came, you saw, you played, almost conquered, but were ultimately crammed into losing. But along the way the battlefield had some casualties. Several for the Ads themselves, and a host of others for Oklahoma City. Tanner House and Tyler Pitlick will sit out a week with concussion symptoms. Antti Tyrvainen will miss 6-8 weeks with a broken wrist. Add to the heap previous injuries to Josh Green and Ryan Martindale, and you’ve got a sizable chunk of roster on the IR. And important roster guys as well.

As the team licks its wounds, Cameron Abney and Toni Rajala come to the rescue. Abney, a recent reassigned forward to Stockton, gets whiplashed back to OKC. Rajala, a rookie pro who’s ripping up the ECHL in the goal scoring department, tags along for the ride. Both seemingly play important roles in the lineup, albeit at polar ends of the bench. Rajala is a good shooting, score first forward. Abney is a heavy footed man slayer. One of these things is not like the other.

And so the team moves quickly to Texas to meet the Stars. The last meeting between these two was pre-Taylor Hall, tight defensively, and gave us the summoning of a fighting Colten Teubert. The Barons won 4-2 on home ice then, but this Stars team has come to life recently. The month of November started with three straight losses against non-South opponents. However, they are riding a three game win streak as they’ve returned to divisional play. This should make the Barons a bit anxious.

It’s too early to judge the goaltenders, both of whom have played well, and played poor at random. Cristopher Nilstorp owns the starting role for now, and is posting a better SV% and GGA than prospect tender, Jack Campbell.

It’s also difficult to find the dominate goal scorer. Centerman Cody Eakin has 6, and sophomore winger Matt Fraser has come on strong of late with 5. A few others that are familiar foes sprinkle the extra offense. Tomas Vincour, Travis Morin, and highly touted defensive draft pick, Jamie Oleksiak. From top to bottom, this is a very capable Texas team. If the goaltending was better, and it seems to be heading that way, the team could rattle off a decent pre-Christmas run.

And for the Stars a huge test stares them in the eye as the offensive muscle of OKC tries to attack Texas at its weakest points – special teams. But the great irony of it all is that both teams have identical penalty kill rankings and percentages. Which will be interesting to see play out. Rarely do you get two teams whom are equally as bad on the kill, so the storyline quickly becomes, “Who stays out of the box the most.”

Tune in tonight for the first of three road games for OKC during the week of Thanksgiving.